Have you ever wondered how the presence of a Starbucks or an EQ3 in the base of your building affects the condominium’s finances?
News-flash: it doesn’t. Here’s why…
Somewhere out there is a blog reader who is going to point to a downtown Toronto condo where the commercial/retail unit on the main floor of the building is, in fact, owned by the condominium corporation.
But for the most part – and if I had to put a number to it, I’d say 90%, these units are commercial spaces, with owners just like those who possess residential units.
The origin of these spaces is the fact that most people do not want to live on the ground floor of a condominium.
I remember showing a unit at 954 King Street West with a massive terrace and a cute gated entrance, that happened to be on the ground level, and my client, a 20-something girl, told me, “It’s nice, but I don’t want to be brutally murdered one night by a psycho.” Yeah, a bit far-fetched, but I see her point. Ground-floor condos are easier to break into, and thus they’re a much tougher sell for developers.
So why not turn the main floor into commercial/retail? It solves the problem of selling the spaces as condos, and in actual fact, it raises the values substantially!
And best of all, it gives us so many options for coffee across the downtown core!
George
at 8:14 am
“Nobody wants to live on the 1st floor no more…
‘Cause stray bullets explore!”
– Rakim
I wish my building had something useful (a full gym) on its ground floor. Instead, we have a useless furniture store that specializes in uncomfortable and overpriced crap. In three years of entering/exiting my building, I have seen zero people actually walk into the adjacent store.
AsianSensation
at 9:36 am
George, are you refering to Structube on college?
Where else can i get my faux Herman Millar pieces. Hold your tongue!!!
moonbeam!
at 8:33 am
Hopefully the condo board has some control over what the spaces are used for….
DavidP
at 10:28 am
I wonder when they’ll finally fine someone to take the commercial space at VU facing Jarvis Street. It’s huge and right next to the Salvation Army…and Jarvis is more of a car thoroughfare than a pedestrian/cyclist meandering through petit shops street.
Floom
at 12:29 pm
Yup. Someone, at some point is going to post “why don’t developers rent the retail instead of selling it so that the condo owners can offset some of their condo fees?” …answer is obvious – net present value is greatest to sell for the developer…and would condo boards members ever be competitent property managers?! Nope.
Also, I agree that the ground floor is dangerous – this is why I always walk on stilts. Laugh and point all you want but I have never been shot or robbed on my stilts…and the one time I was hurt was cuz I fell – so let me point out the obvious that my injuries were sustained on the ground floor, case in point.
Tyson
at 1:27 pm
Hey David, who hosts your blog? Or did you have it set up by a third-party? It’s great. Hook me up.
Easy Money
at 11:42 pm
My condo has a massage parlour on the ground floor with the ubiquitous ‘open’ sign. Never had a problem and they pay the rent on time.
Kleenex, anyone?
russell
at 10:22 am
I used to live in condo where the developer still owned the retail units, we had no say as residents about who took the space, so we ended up with a cell phone operator, a pay day loan company and a chemist, a mixed bag for sure, but the worst was when we were informed the developer wished to rent to a coin laundry.
This might seem like a good thing till you realize that each unit already had a in-unit laundry so there wasn’t much need for this service, especially as there were 5 other coin laundry facilities within a 5 min walk, it also transpired that the water used by the laundry wouldn’t be metered, we as the condo would be charged for it! (We already had severe plumbing issues in the building do to the developer not using the correct pipes/fittings).
Thankfully there was a hearing at the committee of adjustment as the unit was not actually zoned for this use, and the proposal was voted out thanks to vocal opposition from the residents.
As David says, not all retail is bad, some are good to have and add value to the building, but not all do.